Topic: Clyde Tolson

1 chapters across the catalog

08: Hell Up in Harlem
• 44:19 - 47:18

08: Hell Up in Harlem

J. Edgar Hoover Racial Identity and Sexuality Rumors

A Washington Post article by Barbara A. Reynolds is cited regarding long-standing rumors that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was a Black man "passing for white." The segment explores the irony of Hoover—allegedly a closeted gay man of African descent—using the FBI to harass civil rights leaders and investigate the sexuality of others to maintain his own power.